Friday, March 10, 2006

So what the heck has The Hek been up to lately....

About a month and a half ago I was hired as a "street team member" (the technical term is Communications Assistant) for a CBC television program called ZED. My role was to help promote the show in Ottawa by organizing events. After weeks of some research and calling around the nation's capital, I was able to set up a number of important events.

The first events were ZED pub nights. This was part of nation-wide pub nights that were occurring this week as well as next week. I put together a pub night at Mike's Place on the Carleton campus as well as 1848 on the University of Ottawa campus. Both were held yesterday.The second events were ZED film nights. This entails the screening of a number of documentaries and short films that are shown on ZED. So far, I have set up one for the Carleton residence students. It will take place on March 26.

Now, these pub nights and film nights are really, really fun. Not only do I hand out free stuff and promote the show, but I also give out some amazing prizes. Some of the prizes included t-shirts, iTunes gift certificates and DVDs. Plus they sent me my very own ZED t-shirt.

So yesterday were the pub nights and I hosted the one at Mike's Place and had an awesome time! About 250-300 people camethrough the doors and I managed to give out almost all of the stuff. People really loved the buttonsand the postcards. Some even took home the posters.

There were only two little problems. First I had no microphone to use.The pub manager thought I was just going to "network" around the bar.Slight miscommunication I guess. Instead, I had to shout everything.But in the end, everything worked out; except for my now sore throat.

Second (and on a lighter note), some guy was upset that I awarded the iTunes certificate to someone else and not him. He swore that hewould never watch the CBC again. Most of the people around him told himto stop whining.

Quite a few people told me that they love Zed and think its justawesome.

So, by now you're probably wondering if I get paid for this. Well, yes I do. I'm basically freelancing for the CBC and I can't begin to tell you how much that makes me happy. This is something I have always wanted to do. Also, my coordinator in Vancouver, where the show is put together, has been very pleased with my work. Hopefully this will lead to bigger and better things.